Lordi - To Beast Or Not To Beast

Haha, the album title is genius, to say the least... Finnish shock/horror rockers LORDI are back with their sixth full album. “To Beast Or Not To Beast” ain’t gonna change your opinion about this carnival band since again we listen to what the band became famous for the last years, so if you always hated them you’re still gonna raise the hatchet high but if they amused you in the past they can still do the same with this CD.

To be precise, something was altered in regards to the trademark style LORDI has offered us with albums like e.g. “Get Heavy” or “The Arockalypse”; and this is i) the technique that has become a little bit more aggressive and ii) the sound/production that retains a fresh/modern smell. I had trouble at first to swallow the material since I am used to LORDI delivering the goods in their familiar KISS-meets-Alice Cooper-meets-W.A.S.P.-meets-ACCEPT mode and now things seem to be a little bit too ‘contemporary’ but... but... but... this does not affect their songwriting. The big choruses are here, the main riffing is present and the vocals (or choir vocals at the refrains) betray the band’s identity.

Mr. Lordi seems to be here as confident as never again in his singing, thus he presents each song in a horror-full manner and can also act theatric where needed. The instrumentation is close to perfect, too, with only a not that small question mark in the rhythm guitars and bass low-tuned performance. Still, overall the band does not pull away that much from its usual form, hence you can get a new less than 45 minutes entertaining food if a LORDI fan or just leave this page acknowledging you’ll never get to understand and enjoy this kind of music.